Wren had, at various points in her life, wanted quite badly to disappear. She had wanted it during her first week at the orphanage, and during the long, humiliating months learning to be invisible enough that no one asked questions about the strange girl who never flinched from anything. But she had never wanted it as violently, as completely, as she wanted it now, seated at the long dinner table across from Alpha Corwin Vale, playing a woman who had never existed.
"Tell me about your family's territory," Vale said, cutting into his meal with unhurried precision. "You said south. Anywhere near the coastal packs?"
"A small estate," Wren said, the lie coming easier now, three days of Fenn's frantic coaching finally settling into something almost natural. "Not significant enough to be worth
